Alabama

How do you put a price tag on Nick Saban's value?

Only one team in the past 56 years has repeated as unanimous national champion. Nick Saban gets another crack next season.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The last time Nick Saban attended a national championship celebration, he made what amounted to a bold declaration for a coach who loves processes as much as Little Debbie snacks.

"I want everyone here to know, this is not the end," Saban told Alabama fans on Jan. 16, 2010. "This is the beginning."

They'll party again today in Bryant-Denny Stadium with no end in sight for Alabama's ability to compete for national titles. Not as long as Alabama avoids complacency, scandal and losing Saban.

Remember the criticism in 2007 when Alabama made Saban the first $4-million-a-year coach in college sports? At the time, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops had the nation's highest guaranteed annual football salary at $2.5 million.

Jon Solomon is a columnist for The Birmingham News. Join him for live web chats on college sports on Wednesdays at 2 p.m.

Saban's salary was only $500,000 less than what he reportedly made with the Miami Dolphins. It was a staggering amount even to the bloated college sports industry, which creates an artificial market for coaches because players don't get paid.

But look at the return on investment.

What price tag would be appropriate for Saban after two national titles in three years and four straight seasons ranked No. 1? How valuable is a coach who even caused Brent Musburger to flirt with blasphemy by wondering aloud if Alabama fans would now forget Bear Bryant?

Of course, it's hard to place an exact figure on the value of Saban, who was guaranteed $4.68 million this season and will receive at least another $400,000 in bonuses. Some sense of his value can be gleaned from Alabama's 2010-11 NCAA financial report that the school filed this month.

Start with the Bryant-Denny Stadium expansion in 2010 that added 9,000 seats and 36 luxury boxes. That decision came in November 2008 during Saban's first undefeated regular season and only two years after Bryant-Denny had already expanded by 9,000.

Football ticket sales improved by $1.6 million from 2009 to 2010. Last year's record of $29.3 million in tickets sold represented a 42 percent increase from Mike Shula's last season in 2006. Consider this: Saban's 10-win team from 2010 with seven home games in a 101,000-seat stadium sold $13.2 million more in tickets than Shula's 10-win team from 2005 with seven home games in an 83,000-seat stadium.

Alabama football produced $78.1 million in athletics department revenue in 2010-11, compared to $53.2 million in Shula's last season. Almost half of that increase came from the SEC's mega TV deals with ESPN and CBS. But a case could be made that Saban played a role in getting more TV money because his teams draw some of the league's highest ratings.

Alabama's revenue last year from royalties, licensing, advertisements and sponsorships increased by 208 percent from Shula's final season. The athletics department made $17 million in that category during the past two years, compared to $11.9 million in the previous four. Also, booster donations directly to football increased by 29 percent after Saban's first national title in Tuscaloosa.

Meanwhile, Alabama spent more on football, from $21.3 million in Shula's last year to $31.5 million in 2010-11. Saban and his coaches last year received $3.5 million more in compensation than Shula's final staff. Saban's recruiting expenses increased by 279 percent from Shula's last class.

In other words, the financial pieces are in place for continued success, although that doesn't guarantee national titles. Next season Alabama could revert to 2010 due to a young defense and games away from home against Michigan, Arkansas and LSU.

Trying to repeat carries a burden. Among the potential pitfalls: more public appearances, living in the past, heightened media scrutiny, and division among players who believe they aren't receiving enough credit.

Five of the past six BCS champions lost at least three games the next year, including Saban's three defeats in 2010. During the past 56 years, only Tom Osborne's 1994 and '95 Nebraska teams have repeated as a unanimous national champion by the coaches and The Associated Press.

Yet to Alabama fans, today's celebration doesn't seem anywhere close to the end. And there's no dollar amount great enough to pay for such a valuable feeling.